Kamau Brathwaite, from Caliban to Sycorax Aesthetics

Authors

  • Florencia Bonfiglio

Keywords:

Kamau Brathwaite, Caribbean essay, poetry, Caliban

Abstract

The article approaches the continuous appropriations of Shakespeare’s The tempest in the work of Barbadian writer Kamau Brathwaite (1930-2020), in the context of anti-colonial readings of the play from the 60s onwards and the vindication of the figure of Caliban. Brathwaite’s decolonizing project is particularly analyzed through his historiographical studies and his literary and cultural criticism, an area which has been less studied than his poetry and where Shakespearian figures help to question epistemic eurocentrism, creating key concepts such as nation language or nam creolization which are deemed more appropriate to analyze Caribbean culture. In his last works from the 90s onwards, it is through his “Sycorax Video Style” that Brathwaite continues to develop a calibanic discourse, which as a form of maroon resistance to standard English becomes irreducible to hegemonic languages and knowledges.

Author Biography

  • Florencia Bonfiglio

    Doctora en Letras por la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Ha sido becaria del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) y del Servicio de Intercambio Académico Alemán (DAAD). Es investigadora adjunta del CONICET y profesora adjunta de Literatura Latinoamericana II en la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Entre sus trabajos, centrados en la literatura caribeña, se destacan La unidad submarina. Ensayos caribeños de Kamau Brathwaite (2010) y el volumen colectivo, compilado junto con Francisco Aiello, Las islas afortunadas. Escrituras del Caribe anglófono y francófono (2016). Su ensayo “Calibán, o los placeres de la apropiación: comienzos caribeños de La tempestad” obtuvo el Premio “Caliban, origen y permanencia de un símbolo”, Casa de las Américas, Cuba (2011). En 2019 se le otorgó el primer premio de ensayo hispánico Klaus D. Vervuert por The Great Will/El gran legado. Pretextos y comienzos literarios en América Latina y el Caribe, publicado en 2020 en Madrid por Iberoamericana-Vervuert.

References

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Published

2023-06-15

How to Cite

Kamau Brathwaite, from Caliban to Sycorax Aesthetics. (2023). Estudios De Filosofía Práctica E Historia De Las Ideas, 26, 1-17. https://qellqasqa.com.ar/ojs/index.php/estudios/article/view/694